"The truth is, slavery touches the lives of most of us in this room every day through the supply chains of the goods and services we purchase. Do you own a telephone or a computer, clothing, shoes? Do you drink coffee or tea? Do you wear jewellery or makeup? Do you buy seafood, pet food, meat, fruit, vegetables or eat fast food?"  John McCarthy QC is Chair of the Sydney Archdiocesan Antislavery Task Force. An edited collected of keynotes, workshops and presentations, including this one is included in the newly published book, Serving Communities with Courage and Compassion, out now! 

The Victorian Government has recently publicised a number of social policies ahead of Tuesday's official Budget Announcement, which focus on addressing housing and homelessness in the state. The announcements include $5.3 billion to build 12,300 social and affordable housing properties, the establishment of a new statutory agency to create a long-term social housing growth plan, $870 million for the mental health system and $235 million to create 500 jobs in social services: mental health, family violence and child protection.

Holding the Light is an annual ecumenical service to remember victims and survivors of family and domestic violence. This year, the service will be held on Sunday 29th November, at 2:30pm at St Peter's Eastern Hill, East Melbourne.  Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the numbers allowed to gather in person may be restricted, so please register your interest with TryBooking, and more details will be provided to you closer to the time.  The service will also be live-streamed and recorded on the St Peter's Facebook Page and St Peter's YouTube channel. Download flyer.

Recently acknowledged by the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life as promoting “best practice” in lay formation, Leadership for Mission is a joint initiative of the Australian Catholic bishops’ National Centre for Evangelisation (NCE) and Australian Catholic University with the support of Catholic Mission. It is designed by and for women who are inspired by the Gospel vision of justice, freedom and the dignity of the human person. Applications for this program recently closed, however there are a number of vacancies for the 2021/2022 cohort which the NCE hopes to fill as soon as possible.